After a decade of being known simply as "Timmy", his full name was revealed to be "Timmy Burch" in the episode "T.M.I." when his name was posted on the poster containing the kids' growth differentials.

Contents

Background

Vocabulary

One of Timmy's most notable traits, together with being the only wheelchair-bound child in the fourth grade class at South Park Elementary, is his limited vocabulary. He mostly says his name and the slurred phrase "livin' a lie." It was revealed on the official site that the second catchphrase originated when Trey Parker said "Livin' a lie!" while performing as Timmy, after which the catchphrase stuck.[2]

In the South Park opening theme song for Season 6, he sings "Timmy timmy timmy timmy, timmy timmy livin' a lie timmy!", continuing the tradition of incomprehensible lines, previously sung by Kenny McCormick.

Concept and Creation

Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld, performing.

It is said on South Park Studios.com that Timmy was born with a crippling condition,[4] described as being "a strange combination of palsy and Tourette's".

Timmy Burch first appears in "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000"; his three scenes in the episode having little relevance to the central plot. Comedy Central originally wanted to remove him from the episode, in fear of potential controversy over the inclusion of a mentally handicapped character.[5] Series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker pushed to keep the character in the story, with their basis being that although Timmy is different, the other children in the series treat him equally.[5]

Timmy was originally intended only for that episode, but proved so popular that he was given his own story three episodes later, in "Timmy 2000", where he becomes the lead singer of a successful band (originally titled "The Lords of The Underworld", later titled "Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld"), despite his limited vocabulary. Throughout the episode, Phil Collins complains that Timmy is being exploited, although he achieves extreme popularity. The message delivered at the end of the episode is that there is nothing wrong with the situation; given that Timmy enjoys playing music and his audiences enjoy listening to him.

Superhero Alter-Ego

Timmy as Iron Maiden.

In the second half of season 14, Timmy is shown to be a part of Coon and Friends under the name Iron Maiden. In the episode "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", it is revealed that his (imaginary) super power is indestructibility. Iron Maiden can only say "Timmy!", and introduces himself as such in "Mysterion Rises".

Appearance

Timmy wears a red sweater and black trousers. His head is deformed at the top, and he has strawberry blonde hair. He is almost always seen sitting in a black wheelchair, and is usually smiling openly and fidgeting with his hands.

During the metrosexual fad in the episode "South Park is Gay!", he wears a light blue unbuttoned shirt, gelled hair, brown work shoes and a purple-and-pink wheelchair with a rainbow band.

Personality

Timmy was originally described as being somewhat mentally handicapped, but over time his character has become described less as such and more often as "disabled". In various episodes (such as "Up the Down Steroid") he appears to be quite cognizant, intelligent and principled. In "Cripple Fight", and "Make Love, Not Warcraft", he appears to have no trouble operating a computer. He appears to have hydrocephalus, as well as involuntary movements.

Relationships

Timmy is friends with South Park's other disabled character, Jimmy, who is able to understand what Timmy is saying. In the first episode in which Jimmy appears ("Cripple Fight"), Timmy is intensely jealous of him and even tries to have him killed (by giving him a parka that made him look like Kenny McCormick). Eventually, the two make amends and are shown hanging out together.

Gobbles was Timmy's disabled pet turkey that appeared in the Season Four episode, "Helen Keller! The Musical". Timmy bought Gobbles for fifty dollars from Farmer Carl Denkins. After overcoming various hardships despite their disabilities, Timmy and Gobbles formed a deep bond.

Family

Richard and Helen.

Timmy has parents named Richard and Helen. Their surname is Burch (revealed in "T.M.I.") , and they have the same disability as Timmy, in that they can mainly only say their own names, and they are confined to wheelchairs. They also have swollen heads. This implies that Timmy's disorder is hereditary.

Richard wears an old fashioned red jacket with a white shirt underneath, and blue jeans. He has a crop of brown hair on top of his head. His head seems to slump down, a little. Helen wears a turquoise jacket and a lilac/grey skirt. Her hair is orange and shoulder length.

A picture on their wall indicates that Timmy, Richard and Helen have been to Paris.

Reception

Being a highly popular character, Timmy has been received very well by the South Park community. It was seen that he is more popular among disabled people based on the voters who voted Timmy for Ouch!'s "The Greatest Disabled TV Character" poll[6]. Jeff Shannon when commenting on Timmy said "Timmy appears, at first glance, to uphold the condescending disability stereotypes that are gradually fading from mainstream entertainment. But like everything else in 'South Park,' he's actually challenging preconceptions, toppling taboos and weaving his singularity into the fabric of the show."[7]. When Comedy Central first heard of Timmy, they were against the idea. After Timmy appeared in "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000" and fans were ecstatic, Comedy Central, according to Trey Parker, were eager to have Timmy appear again.

IGN ranked Timmy second in a list of the "Top 10 South Park Peripheral Characters", commenting that "South Park's most controversial character may be one of the funniest and most enduring".[8] In Doug Pratt's DVD: Movies, Television, Music, Art, Adult, and More!, author Douglas Pratt describes Timmy's use of different inflections to express his mood, all the while saying nothing but his name, as amusing, although he adds that some may disagree.[9]

M. Keith Booker, author of Drawn to television: prime-time animation from the Flintstones to Family Guy, describes Timmy as arguably being the most controversial of the secondary characters in the series.[10]

According to Trey Parker, soon after the character's debut, he observed that fans of the series began shouting "Timmy!" in an imitation of the character, as opposed to their earlier imitations of the character Cartman and their usage of other popular catchphrases on the show.[5]

Despite Timmy's fame during his initial seasons on the show, his role has declined considerably, without a single line of dialogue between "Make Love, Not Warcraft" and "Crippled Summer", having been replaced by Jimmy Valmer. Trey Parker noted in a 2000 interview he tries to avoid using characters like Kenny McCormick and Timmy because viewers can't understand their dialogue. Despite this decline, Timmy has made somewhat of a comeback and appeared in several episodes in the fourteenth and fifteenth seasons. According to some sources, he has lost considerable support from South Park fans as well.

Cultural Influence

Due to the popularity of South Park, Timmy's exclamation "TIMMEH!" soon entered into pop culture as an outburst used to describe, chide, or respond to moments of extreme un-coordination, lack of concentration or other losses of logic, sense or reason. There are many other ways in which the exclamation is referenced, such as:

The popular MMORPG World of Warcraft features the character Timmy the Cruel in the Stratholme instance (who yells "TIMMY!" when he appears).

In January 2007, British metal band Siren Lake named their van Timmy, in homage to the character. This has gained them a huge amount of media coverage including an appearance on Peter Snow's, Newsnight.

In the 2007 music video game Rock Band, one of the unlockable bonus tracks is "Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld", featuring a full-length version of the song used in "Timmy 2000".

In the 2008 video game "Fallout 3", a dungeon features a series of clones named Gary, who, like Timmy, can only speak their own name. While they are not wheelchair-bound, they are insane and will attack on sight, using their tone of voice while speaking their name to indicate emotion.

In the film Team America: World Police, also created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, features celebrity Matt Damon who is portrayed as being mentally handicapped and capable of only saying his name. This was done because his puppet came out as looking handicapped so they went with it.

Timmy's name, and the way he says it, may be a play on the Japanese word "temē" 「てめえ」, a very rude way of saying "you" used chiefly by male speakers and when the speaker is angry. Trey Parker is fluent in the Japanese language.

A creature in Resident Evil 4 shares the same name and has slight similarities to Timmy's superhero identity, Iron Maiden. Aside from sharing the same name, both have spikes coming out of their bodies, both are a grey color, and Timmy's "super power" is indestructibility while the Iron Maiden (Resident Evil) is close to being indestructible.

"Fourth Grade" - Helps his fellow fourth graders by strapping a time traveling device to his wheelchair, which ends up going terribly wrong. He ends up in prehistoric times, but returns later on.

"Helen Keller! The Musical" - Gets the lead part in the Thanksgiving musical play and finds a crippled pet turkey, which he names Gobbles and learns to say his name. Timmy greatly admires Gobbles. He even goes far enough to jump in front of a bullet aiming for Gobbles.

"Cripple Fight" - Becomes envious of Jimmy's popularity at scouts and fights him in an alley. After the fight, which was a tie, Timmy uses his computer to make a photo with Jimmy's head atop a nude mans body, embracing another nude man. This causes Jimmy to be kicked out of the scouts due to it's no homosexual law.

"Professor Chaos" - Auditions to be the new "fourth kid". He is suggested by Kyle because he doesn't tell lame jokes, is quiet and takes direction well making him the perfect friend. Cartman argues with this saying that Timmy is really self-centered. Tweek Tweak becomes the fourth kid instead.

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Timmy makes a small appearance in the game, where he serves as a fast travel system. He only appears in a cutscene when you arrive at the bus stop, and doesn't make a further appearance. He adds your character on Facebook when you find every fast travel flag. His only post is "Timmy!"